Driving The Back Roads Home
by SereneCalamity
Summary: It sort of became their thing, taking the long way back to her apartment. LoVe. OneShot.


_How is it that all these years later I'm still completely in love with this couple? Honestly! I'm on late shifts this week so for the first few hours each morning, I'm making my way through_ Veronica Mars _again! Halfway through season one, and that of course instigated another oneshot. Possibly more to come if I continue my marathon..._

 _Any mistakes are my own and I apologize._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters._

It had always been their thing— taking the back roads home.

Logan Echolls was the first one to get his licence out of their foursome, and of course, the instant he got his licence his daddy took him out to get his first car; his beloved yellow Nissan T-Bird. So that meant that, despite the fact he didn't have his full licence and shouldn't be driving with passengers, Logan was their designated driver. And despite the fact that Veronica Mars was currently dating Duncan Kane, she loved watching Logan behind the wheel of his baby.

It all started when Logan began giving her rides home. Given he now had a car, she didn't need to rely on her parents to pick her up. Veronica's dad, Keith Mars, didn't particularly like that he was contributing to the illegal activity of a minor, driving without the correct licence, but he wasn't the sheriff anymore, and Veronica could be very persuasive when she wanted to be. Duncan and Lilly Kane lived only just down the road, so they never needed rides home, but Veronica's daddy wasn't a movie star or the CO for a multi-billion dollar company, so she didn't live in the 09er territory. Logan offered to give her a lift the day after he got his licence, and then he had just kept kind of giving them.

It was the only time Veronica got to sit in the front seat. Usually Lilly was in the front seat, or sometimes it was Duncan, but it was never Veronica. On the drive home, Veronica got to sit in the front passenger seat and Logan let her control the radio.

The habit of driving the long way around town had started because Logan just wanted to show off his new ride. And then after six months, Veronica realized that they were still doing it, but she didn't point it out. It was surprising, some of the things that they talked about. Mostly it was school, but sometimes there were things he would mumble about his dad, Aaron Echolls, and Veronica would prompt him for more details. She wasn't sure if Duncan and Lilly were under this rich kid code that stopped them from discussing the the things that heard and saw around the Echolls family home, but it seemed as though she was the only one Logan could talk to about it.

At first it was slow going, Logan and Veronica had never been that close. Sure, they hung out pretty much every day, but they didn't really talk exclusively. Veronica was only there because Lilly was her best friend and she was currently dating Duncan, she didn't have any separate tie to Logan. But then, a couple months into the twenty-five minute drive home, they started talking.

And then things escalated even more; from talking about Logan's dad to talking about Lilly.

Logan and Lilly had a pretty...Heated relationship. They were on and off, switching their relationship status quicker than Hollywood socialites. When they were on, they were all over each other in vomit inducing make out sessions and sweet talking. But when they were off, Logan would get drunk at school and high in the car park and Lilly would bounce between a bunch of good looking boys at their school. Veronica didn't exactly _approve_ of the way things were between them, but it was her best friend, and she kept her opinions to herself...Most of the time.

Apparently the latest thing was Logan had caught Lilly sunbathing by his pool, topless, while he wasn't there. The only person home was Aaron. Logan didn't think anything happened between the two, but it was just the fact that she liked to mess with his head that got him so wound up.

Veronica was happy to let him vent and then when they pulled up outside her apartment and he turned off his engine, they stayed in his car for an extra half hour.

"Shit, Ronnie," Logan ran his hand through his short hair. "Sorry, I know Lilly is your best friend." Veronica tilted her head to the side and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "It's just...No one else really gets that you can be _completely_ in love with Lilly and then want to stab your eyes in a matter of seconds." Veronica laughed sympathetically and nodded.

"It's okay, I get it," she pursed her lips together and looked up at her apartment building. "I better go, I'm pretty sure dad is watching through a telescope."

"Why?" Logan gave her his legendary, lazy smirk. "He think I'm going to corrupt his beautiful baby girl?"

That was the first time that Veronica got butterflies because of Logan Echolls.

* * *

When they were seventeen, Lilly was shipped off to boarding school. Her parents had caught her having sex with one of her fathers co-directors on their kitchen bench. Veronica had laughed when she had first found out, but then when Lilly had said that her parents had had enough and were sending her off to a Catholic school in England, she had sobered up. Lilly and Logan were in one of their off stages at the time, and so the goodbye between the two of them had been frosty.

Duncan and Veronica had broken up a while ago, and so she hadn't been hanging out with the rich trio as often. But just after Lilly was shipped out, Lianne Mars left. There wasn't any explanation, just a short note left on the bench and a unicorn music box on Veronica's wooden dresser. Clearly news traveled fast, because when Veronica walked out of school a week later and bee-lined to the bus, Logan appeared in front of her.

"Want a ride?" He asked.

It was nice.

The windows were down and the music was loud and he didn't make her talk, not like her father had been trying to make her do. This time, he went the _real_ long way, ending up at the beach. He pulled up right next to the sand, and they sat in his car, watching the sun slowly set behind the ocean. He still hadn't said anything to her since they had got into the car, but just before he turned the car back on, he reached across the center console and gripped her hand, rubbing the back with his thumb softly.

Shivers had run down her spine and he had sent a smile across to her; a small, genuine smile that she had never seen before.

* * *

Wallace Fennel transferred into Neptune High in their last year, and he and Veronica had become fast friends, joining her small posse of two, herself and Cindy 'Mac' Mackenzie. Logan still hung out with Duncan and Dick Casablancas and the rest of the 09er crew, but he seemed to be making more of an effort to see her throughout the school day. Just something here and there; putting his arm around her shoulders in the hallway for a couple of seconds, giving her a squeeze as they were walking. Stopping by her locker when she was getting her books for her next class and asking how her day was going. Throwing paper planes with weird little poems across the room when they were in the same class together.

Halfway through the year she started dating a cop from the local station, probably the only there who wasn't corrupted. Leo D'Amato was cute and funny, and he was old enough to have his own car. For a couple of months, that kept her mind occupied and she knew that her dad approved of him.

But he wasn't the witty, brown eyed, rich blonde surfer boy that she had been falling in love with since she was sixteen.

And his dark blue Holden just wasn't the same as the bright yellow Nissan Xterra.

* * *

Logan pulled his shit together enough to manage to get into University, and it turned out that it was exactly the same University that Veronica was headed to. There were a couple of drunken nights where Veronica thought that maybe things were going to take a step further than friendship with Logan, but he never made the move. One night, while they were on Spring break, Logan met up with her in a club when she was out with Mac and Wallace, and he had been the responsible one and elected himself to be the sober driver.

Logan at school was fun because he was irresponsible and loud and did the unexpected.

And for a sixteen year old, that was enough.

But now that she was almost twenty, a responsible sober driver, who helped her back to her dad's place and tucked her into bed, pressing a kiss to her forehead; that was exactly right.

* * *

"Fancy meeting you here," Logan looked across at her, his eyebrows raised and a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Well, you were always the guy to go to for a ride home," Veronica replied with a smirk, pushing her hair behind her ear and tilting her head to the side. He mimicked her movement and shook his head.

"There you go again. Tilting your head to side and scrunching up that little button nose and asking for favors," he replied.

It was the night after graduation, and Veronica had packed up her dorm room the week before. She had crashed with Mac and her room mate, Parker Lee, after the big graduation party and she had left her car back at her dad's house. She had a plan, to get the home the next day, and involved crashing whatever Logan's plans were. She was going off to New York in three weeks time to start an internship and Harvey & Co, a lawyers firm and Logan had told her that he had signed up to join the US Navy.

And she was not having him disappear from her life without one last drive home.

"You know this isn't it, right?" Logan looked across at her as they sped down the highway.

"What you mean?" Veronica looked across at him.

"I mean, we're going our seperate ways, but this isn't it. This isn't where our story ends," Logan told her, giving her a smile that melted her heart.

"We have a story now, do we?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, attempting to keep her cocky exterior.

"Of course we do," Logan grinned. "And it hasn't ended the right way yet, so it's not about to end." They were only about few minutes away from her dads apartment building and Veronica couldn't help but think that Logan was wrong; that once she got out of the car, things were going to be over between them. They were friends, yeah sure, but they weren't best friends. And even if they were, the distance between Veronica and Lilly showed her that it didn't matter how close you were, things always changed. There really wasn't anything else that was holding them together.

At least nothing that had been said out loud and made official.

"Ronnie," Logan said, snapping her out of her thoughts as he pulled up at the curb. She blinked and looked around. They were parked across the street from her childhood apartment, where Keith still lived, and Logan had turned off the engine. "I'm serious."

"About what?" Veronica undone her seat belt and turned slightly in her seat.

"That this isn't it," Logan repeated, taking off his own seat belt and turning around fully to face her. He had a sincere expression on his face, his eyes genuine without a hint of a smile on his mouth. It wasn't a look that he got often, and it kind of worried her when he did. He reached across the center console and took one of her hands in both of his, holding it gently. "Veronica," he took in a deep breath and she felt everything inside of her tighten, as he stared at her intently. "Things with us have never really been...Clear. And I didn't want to say something and then have you not feel the same way and throw it back in my face, and then everything with us change." He cleared his throat and Veronica licked her lips nervously. "What I'm saying is that...I've kind of had a thing for you...For a while."

"Oh, yeah?" She finally spoke.

"Yeah," Logan gave her a shaky smile, a far cry from his usual confident one. "And I know that I might have waited too long to say something but I needed to—"

"You didn't," Veronica cut him off. He was talking far too much and she now knew that he felt the same, he didn't need to speak anymore. She pulled her hand from his and reached out to clasp his shoulders, drawing him into her and bringing her lips down on his. Logan let out a muffled noise of surprise but quickly adapted. The kiss started slowly, their lips molding with each others and learning how one another moved. But then he flicked his tongue over the seam of her lips and she groaned, shivers running over her skin and creating goosebumps over her arms.

She parted her lips and let Logan in, tangling with her tongue and tracing the cavern of her mouth. He moved his hand from where they were resting on her knee to her waist, pulling her over the center console and tugging her onto her lap. She knocked her knee on the hand brake but managed to navigate her legs in the tiny shorts she was wearing so that they were braced on either side of his hips. The kiss was becoming sloppier and wet, his tongue touching her in places that made her jerk forward, rolling her hips and thrust against him. Logan moaned in response and she could feel his arousal pressing into her and when his hips started inching under the hem of her shirt, the rush of heat that flooded between her legs made her groan. She finally pulled away from him, her lips swollen and her cheeks red.

"You think your dad still has that telescope?" Logan asked with a grin, leaning his head back against the headrest and biting down on his lower lip as he scanned his eyes over Veronica, drinking her in.

"Oh, he definitely still has that telescope," she laughed.

"Well, let's hope that he's busy. Because the things I'm about to do to his daughter should never be seen by one's father," Logan smirked as he leaned back in, capturing her lips once more with his.

 _Did you guys like it?_

 _It's my birthday tomorrow, so you guys should totally leave me a review and let me know what you think, as a present ;)_


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